Marketplace Integrator: What it is & Why it is Helpful for Your Online Business
Now more than ever, connecting your online store to your marketplace is a big priority. A lot of earning opportunities abound when you market your products on multiple fronts, like your website, physical stores, and marketplaces. And a marketplace integrator makes that possible.
What is a Marketplace Integrator?
A marketplace integrator is a tool or software that is used to connect your e-commerce store to an online marketplace. It can also be seen as plugins or apps that allow you to share data between your e-commerce store and online marketplace.
You don’t need to manually enter your product catalogue because your e-commerce site data will be synced with your online marketplace.
The best part is that you can connect your online store to multiple marketplaces. A marketplace integrator like SKUPlugs can help you link up your e-commerce store with popular marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart.
What is Marketplace Integration?
Marketplace integration is the process of connecting your online store to an online marketplace. In other words, you’re enabling your e-commerce store to share your site’s data with an online marketplace. This allows you to sell your e-commerce products on big-name marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, and eBay.
How Does Marketplace Integration Work?
First, you will be asked to follow some steps to connect your online store’s API to your marketplace’s API. After that, you would have to wait for a few minutes for the process to be complete. During this time, the marketplace integrator plugin or software will connect your store’s inventory with the marketplace. It will pull the data from your online store and replicate it on your marketplace.
Nonetheless, you can always decide the type of data that you wish to share with your marketplace. This could be product catalogues, pricing, quantities, shipping details, etc.
The marketplace integrator can also enable real-time synchronization between your store and marketplace. As a product is purchased on a marketplace like Alibaba it immediately reflects on your site.
You can do the same for several marketplaces. And monitor sales on your store and marketplaces on a single dashboard.
The best part is that you can connect your online store to multiple marketplaces. A marketplace integrator like SKUPlugs can help you link up your e-commerce store with popular marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart.
Roles of Marketplace Integration in an E-commerce Business
Marketplace integration has a lot of roles to play in the growth of an online store, and here are a few of them.
Connect POS/ERP to your Marketplace
With marketplace integration, you can easily connect your POS or ERP directly to your online marketplaces. So, as orders are placed and shipped in your brick-and-mortar store, it is updated on your online marketplace. This helps you to maintain a unified inventory management system both on your offline and online stores without engaging in manual tasks.
Automated Inventory Management
Marketplace integration also helps to automatically synchronize your inventory in all your sales channels. Your inventory levels will be updated by the minute even as goods are sold on your website and marketplace.
There is no need to manually enter product data like stock levels, pricing, descriptions, and images. Because any action that takes place on one channel syncs in real-time with other sales channels.
Create Multiple Sales Channels
Another role of marketplace integration is that it helps you to sell your business on multiple platforms simultaneously. Thereby diversifying your sales route, reaching new consumer markets, and increasing your potential profits.
To put it another way, there are more chances of significantly increasing your sales and growing your store by showing up on different sales channels. You can also integrate your e-commerce website into several marketplaces, including your physical stores.
Expand your Brand Reach
No doubt, using marketplace integration will help you to reach millions of consumers online. Popular marketplaces like Amazon get millions of site visits every month and have a reach that expands to hundreds of countries around the world.
So marketplace integration can surely help you reach consumers in distant places that wouldn’t have been possible on your own.
Boost Brand Reputation and Trust
Marketplaces like Walmart have a certain level of trust and pedigree, which confers on your products once you get listed. People will view your brand as a trusted source and authority in your niche by being in a marketplace.
Think of it this way: you’re leveraging the authority of big e-commerce marketplaces that have been around for several years to sell your products. Along with that, you increase your chances of claiming top spots on Google if your product is highly rated on the platform.
Because marketplaces will always appear on Google search results for e-commerce keywords with a buying intent, we both know that it will take a lot of resources and time to rank your e-commerce website for even a few keywords because the industry is highly competitive.
Leverage Marketplace Features
Different marketplaces have unique features like advertisements, shipping, and marketing solutions that can help to promote your products. For example, Amazon helps to warehouse and ship your products to fulfilment centres.
If you have enough funds, you can run ads that will show up for certain keywords and searches related to your product. Marketplaces also have sophisticated website UX which you can use to put up the best possible image of your products.
Challenges in Marketplace Integration
There are several challenges you might face while integrating marketplaces into your store, and they include:
It Requires Coding Skills
Marketplace integration requires some level of coding skills to plug your website’s backend into your marketplace. And hiring the services of a developer or agency can be expensive.
Coupled with the fact that marketplaces update their APIs periodically. This means that you’d have to pay someone to manually link your store and marketplace whenever that happens.
Marketplaces have Different API Architecture.
The API specifications of Reverb aren’t the same as those of Farfetch. Each marketplace has unique requirements that need to be met so that your online store can share data with your marketplace.
For example, a marketplace like AliExpress may have different requirements for image resolutions and backend sync functionalities. This can be a hurdle, especially if you wish to sell on several marketplaces. Also, some marketplaces might be easy to hook up, while others might require more technical coding prowess.
API Updates can Occur
As said earlier, marketplaces update their API to give room for new features and improve the user experience. However, checking for marketplace API updates and reconnecting your website’s API can be a hassle. These API updates can come with strict security measures and product-led changes like product description character limits and product category changes. It would even be a bigger burden when you have several marketplaces you’re managing.
Inadequate Data Synchronization
One of the major perks of marketplace integration is real-time data synchronization. If this feature isn’t working optimally, then you’d have issues with inventory management and order fulfilment between your marketplace and site or POS.
Worst of all, data errors are caused by poor data sync and can make you lose customers and give you a low rating and negative reviews on marketplaces.
Penalties for Orders Not Working
If your marketplace integration is not fully functional, it can lead to penalties from your marketplace. For example, sanctions or suspension of your seller account. This can take a hit on your brand reputation and customer reviews in the marketplace. It can be caused by issues with incorrect stock levels, shipping, and order fulfilment.
Choose a Good Marketplace Integrator: SKUPlugs
An efficient marketplace integrator like SKUPlugs does not need any coding or developer skills. You just need to follow the on-screen prompts to connect your online store to your marketplace. It even has a POS e-commerce integration that allows you to link up your physical store with your marketplace.
That’s not all; here’s what you’ll be getting with SKUPlugs.
Supported API Updates and Maintenance
You don’t need to bother about checking for API updates so you can reconnect your e-commerce website because a tool like SKUPlugs has all of that covered.
SKUPlugs will update your website’s API to be compatible with your marketplace in any event of API updates and maintenance. To enable you to focus more on increasing your sales volume.
Zero Compatibility Issues
Plus, you don’t need to worry about marketplace compatibility issues and requirements because we’ve built an automatic synchronization plugin that will connect your store to your marketplace seamlessly. SKUPlugs supports a variety of marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, Faire, Reverb, Wayfair, Farfetch, Lazada, and so on.
Real-time Data Synchronization
SKUPlugs also provides multichannel inventory sync across your marketplaces, website, and POS/ERP. It’s an online marketplace sync software that streamlines your inventory data in all of your sales channels.
With this feature, you can set minimum and maximum stock levels and safety stock for periods of high demand. What’s more, you can manage your inventory levels and product details on a single dashboard without updating details manually.
24/7 Support
SKUPlugs provides 24/7 support to handle any issues you might encounter with your marketplace integration. Whether it’s marketplace setup hiccups or performance issues, you’re just a few minutes away from your solution. Our friendly and professional team of experts is always available to help you out.
Sing up on SKUPlugs now to start your free trial.